Rosberg wins again in Monaco after controversial Hamilton pit call

Nico Rosberg claimed an unlikely victory at the Monaco Grand Prix after a controversial late pit stop for Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton dominated proceedings until the remaining 15 laps, when the Safety Car was called due to an accident for Max Verstappen.

Mercedes decided to pit Hamilton – who had a substantial lead – and he emerged back in third place, unable to get by on Sebastian Vettel.

It meant Rosberg was able to take his third successive victory in the Principality, despite Hamilton’s erstwhile domination.

At the start Hamilton retained his lead into Sainte Devote while Rosberg defended second position; the only change inside the top 10 came as the Red Bull drivers swapped positions, while Fernando Alonso was handed a five second time penalty after nudging Nico Hülkenberg into the wall at Mirabeau.

Hamilton duly extended his lead over Rosberg across the opening part of the race, building a gap of three seconds, with Vettel remaining within reach of his compatriot.

Hamilton dealt with the majority of lapped traffic better than Rosberg, with the gap ballooning to eight seconds, as the lead trio pulled significantly clear of the Red Bulls.

Vettel was the first of the frontrunners to pit as he stopped on lap 35 for fresh Primes; Rosberg duly reacted a lap later and maintained his position.

Hamilton came in a lap later for his stop and emerged with an 8.2s lead as Vettel closed the gap to Rosberg to under a second before the Mercedes driver reacted with a sequence of quick laps.

Hamilton extended his lead to 19 seconds until the Safety Car was deployed when Verstappen – recovering from a slow stop – slammed into the back of Romain Grosjean and suffered a heavy impact into the wall at Sainte Devote.